NEW DELHI — Five men convicted of raping a Danish tourist in India’s capital in 2014 were sentenced to life in prison by a New Delhi court on Friday. The assault took place in the wake of a year of intense national debate on the problem of sexual violence in India, set off by a brutal attack that left an Indian woman dead in New Delhi.

Nine men had been charged with raping and robbing the Danish woman, who was 51 at the time of the attack. Five of them were convicted on Monday. Three of those charged are minors, and their cases are pending in juvenile court. One other man died in prison during the trial.

Image

Two of the five men convicted in the rape of a Danish tourist in 2014 were escorted from court by the police on Thursday in New Delhi. All five men were sentenced to life in prison on Friday.CreditManish Swarup/Associated Press

Atul Kumar Shrivastava, the public prosecutor, said the court decided that the defendants should remain in prison “until their last breath.”

The Danish woman told the police she had been abducted at knife point and raped by a group of men in a secluded park near the New Delhi Railway Station in central Delhi in January 2014. She returned to her hotel in an area popular with backpackers and told the reception desk to call the police, according to the hotel manager.

The woman’s rape occurred a little more than a year after the gang rape of a 23-year-old student on a bus in New Delhi who was brutalized with iron rods and later died. Four of her attackers were sentenced to death.

Raj Kumar, a Delhi police inspector who investigated the case, said the police arrested the suspects within hours of the report of the rape. Mr. Kumar described the men as “petty criminals” who had stopped the Danish woman to rob her, but then also raped her.

“They were under the influence of liquor and maybe some other substances as well,” he said.

The woman tried to deter her attackers by telling them that she had AIDS, but the men bought condoms from a nearby store, Mr. Kumar said. A gardener who lived near the park helped the police identify the suspects, he said.

“Our prestige was at stake to crack this case as soon as possible,” he said.

After making her complaint, the victim left India without a medical examination. She was examined by doctors in Denmark, Mr. Shrivastava said, and she later returned to India to give a statement in court.

The convicted men’s lawyer, Dinesh Sharma, told reporters after the judgment that his clients were framed and that they would challenge the verdict.

Follow Nida Najar on Twitter @nidanajar

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A7 of the New York edition with the headline: Five Get Life Sentences in India for 2014 Rape of Danish Tourist. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe